a bollixed acrostic but still good
See, it's getting late and I'm running out of Time to have breakfast, shower and dress for church; moreover, this isn't going to interest anyone but me and maybe an adult Sunday school class, or a seminary Hebrew-101 class that's perusing the book of Psalms. But, WTH, the blogposts are my thoughts, jotted down for me and nobody else, so I'm having a halfwitted shot at it in the little Time before Linda rings the breakfast bell.
It's about Psalm 25, our responsive psalm for today, the First Sunday in Lent, Year B (remember, there are forty days of Lent, not counting the Sundays, so the Sundays are called "IN Lent" rather than "OF Lent" - - more about that as Lent wears on, but not this hurried morning, eh?)
The lectionary prescribes Psalm 25, verses 1-9:
Psalm 25:1-9
1 To you, O Lord, I lift up my soul;
my God, I put my trust in you; *
let me not be humiliated,
nor let my enemies triumph over me.
2 Let none who look to you be put to shame; *
let the treacherous be disappointed in their schemes.
3 Show me your ways, O Lord, *
and teach me your paths.
4 Lead me in your truth and teach me, *
for you are the God of my salvation;
in you have I trusted all the day long.
5 Remember, O Lord, your compassion and love, *
for they are from everlasting.
6 Remember not the sins of my youth and my transgressions; *
remember me according to your love
and for the sake of your goodness, O Lord.
7 Gracious and upright is the Lord; *
therefore he teaches sinners in his way.
8 He guides the humble in doing right *
and teaches his way to the lowly.
9 All the paths of the Lord are love and faithfulness *
to those who keep his covenant and his testimonies.
Anytime verses are left out, I like to check and see why. The usual reason is that the lectionary framers know we are too blasted sorry, lazy, impatient to bother with the whole thing in Sunday worship - - for one thing, we want to get to Morrison's Cafeteria before the Baptists. It turns out that the KJV shows 22 verses in Psalm 25, which rings my alarm bell that the psalm is likely an acrostic.
Acrostic psalms follow the 22 letter Hebrew alphabet verse by verse (or stanza by stanza) from alef to tav, with each verse (or each verse of a stanza) beginning successively from verse one through verse twenty-two.
So, I go to the Mechon-Mamre Hebrew-English Bible online and open Psalm 25: it sure as aitch doesn't look like an acrostic to me, or at least it does not flow acrostically in Hebrew like the other acrostic psalms do. So I do a bit of googling. Turns out that Psalm 25 is a "botched up" acrostic. I guess the author was not imaginative enough to force the acrostic through, left out some letters and doubled up on others, and even used the second or third word of a verse to claim credit for using the proper letter.
Details below (scroll down) for anyone in my old Sunday school classes or midweek Bible study classes who might still be interested.
At any event, more relevantly for the day, Psalm 25 is the song of a sinner who knows in faith that God is merciful and will forgive. It's perfect for this first Sunday in Lent.
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Here's some details about Psalm 25
https://explainingthebook.com/2017/06/04/psalm-25-acrostic/
https://explainingthebook.com/2017/06/04/psalm-25-commentary/
Psalm 25 is an acrostic psalm, meaning each of the 22 verses begins with a different letter of the Hebrew alphabet (which has 22 letters). Well… it’s almost an acrostic psalm. Four verses break the pattern:
- Verse 2 repeats aleph rather than use beth
- Verses 5-6 skips over the vav
- Verse 18 should begin with a shin, but it instead begins with a resh
- Verse 22 begins with an extra pei
Given that this psalm is *almost* an acrostic, the author seems to be drawing our attention to the verses that break the pattern. So, what do those verses say?
- Let not my enemies triumph over me
- You are the God of my salvation
- Forgive all my sins
- Redeem Israel out of all their troubles
All of these verses are about salvation! And David (by the Holy Spirit) wants us to focus on God’s deliverance from our troubles and our enemies throughout this psalm.
But that’s not all. If you put the three missing letters together, they spell the word “hell.” And if you put the three extra letters together, they spell “healer.” In other words, while bringing our attention to God’s ever-present salvation, God has removed hell and replaced it with healing.
He truly is the God of our salvation.
“To You, O LORD, I lift my soul. O my God, I trust in You.” (Psalm 25)
Online source: "explaining the book"
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This sort of stuff is one of my hobbies in my ancient age, favorites are dealing with Bible, with Hebrew, with Greek, and with anything German. If I could return, and do life over, and choose, I'd choose to be a Greek Jew converted to Christianity and specializing in German language. But that's just Uncle Bubba here.
Happy Sunday to all, and to all a good morning.
RSF&PTL
T88&c
